One-Shot: I Am an Abernathy
My name is Katniss Abernathy Everdeen Mellark Stevens. If you are wondering why I have such a long name, well, I'll explain in a minute.
I hug my coat close to my chest as I bound up the steps to my father's mansion in Victors' Village. Ever since I had learned that my mother had spent a one-night stand with Hunger Games Victor Haymitch Abernathy that resulted in my conception, I have been spending as much time with the father I've never known.
Upon my knocking, my biological father opens the door. He gives a toothy smile. "Hey, sweetheart." He wraps me in a hug. He smells of liquor, but I've learned to love that about him, provided he doesn't drink too much.
"Hi, Daddy."
It is still hard to connect that word with the hardened warrior I see before me. The pair of us enter the living room, where a small table sits in the middle of the room, piled high with bottles of alcohol and other spirits. My father almost never uses the kitchen; he barely knows how to cook three or four simple dishes.
Daddy clears away the bottles save for one into a box and sets it aside. We sit across from each other.
"How's my grandchild?" he smirks.
"Which one?" I laugh back.
"Let's start with the one you had most recently and work our way up."
"He's teething, so he cries a lot, but other than that..."
Haymitch nods, his mouth in a tight, neutral line. "And Darius?"
"He gets away from the barracks whenever he can," I express.
"And the others? Peeta, Simit and the girls?"
"I saw Peeta the other day in town. I need to pop over there at some point with fresh game; tell the kids a bedtime story."
I suppose I should explain. My family life is rather... well, complicated. My family tree alone would make a person's head spin. For about a decade, I was married to Peeta Mellark, the Baker's son. We had three children together: Simit, our son, and twins Iris and Amaryllis. But, then... I met Darius, a kind Peacekeeper within District 12. We seduced each other and embarked on an extramarital affair that resulted in my pregnancy with my youngest son.
Then, one day, I discovered the truth of my parentage: my father was not Estes Everdeen, as I had believed all my life. My biological father was Haymitch Abernathy, Victor of the 50th Annual Hunger Games. My sister, Primrose - her biological father was Steffan Mellark... my then-father-in-law. The father who raised us both was infertile, so our mother sought out lovers to conceive us.
Then, Peeta found out about my affair. Citing that and the possibility that we were distantly related, we divorced amicably. We're good friends and a part of me still loves him deeply, just in a different way.
I sigh as all of this flashes through my head. "So, what are we doing tonight, Daddy?"
Daddy stands and plucks a cassette from a cabinet next to the TV. "This."
I stare, for I can pretty much guess what the tape contains. "No way! Is that your Games?"
"Yup. It's high time you knew what your old man had to do to come home and give you life."
He pops the tape into the cassette player. Sitting with him on the couch, I nestle into him and lose myself in the 50th Annual Hunger Games.
A President who is not Snow reads off a small card, announcing the twist for that Quarter Quell - a special edition of the Hunger Games every quarter-century. Twice as many tributes will be sent.
Then, the reapings. Name after name after name is called. My father is summoned last of all. I can see some of myself in him - my brown hair, the shape of the face. He was quite the looker in his youth. I kiss Daddy's cheek.
The next thing we observe is the tributes getting off the train. I start when I see a girl with blond hair. Maysilee Donner.
"Oh! She was my mother's friend."
"They were best friends," Daddy corrects me. "And she becomes very important later on, Maysilee does. Little did I know her best friend would be the mother of my only child."
The interviews with Caesar Flickerman go by in a blur. Since he is going to be the Victor, Daddy gets more screen time than anyone else.
"So, Haymitch, how does it feel knowing there will be 100% more tributes than usual?"
"I don't see how it'll make much difference. They'll all be 100% as stupid as usual, so I figure my odds will be roughly the same." My father's younger self smirks into the camera as the audience roars. He's cocky. Arrogant. Indifferent. Unaware of the destiny he is meant to fulfill.
At last, we enter the arena. It is sickeningly beautiful, with sweet flowers and trees and a white-capped mountain. Many of the tributes are entranced even as they step off their plates. Not Daddy, though. He seizes a backpack and is running for the trees almost before the gong has finished sounding.
18 tributes die that first day. And many more begin to drop quickly, as it is discovered that almost everything in this arena is poisonous. At one point, the mountain turns into a volcano that kills ten more tributes, including all but five of the Career pack. Daddy persistently keeps walking in the same direction, keeping the mountain and Cornucopia at his back.
At one point, he encounters three Careers at once - some of the last alive. Daddy pulls his knife. He is remarkably fast as well as strong, killing two before the third disarms him. Just before Daddy's throat can be slit, the last Career drops to the ground from a blowdart to the neck.
Maysilee Donner steps from the trees. "We'd live longer with two of us."
"Guess ya just proved that," Daddy winces. "Allies?" She nods.
As a team, Maysilee and Daddy are far more effective. They battle well together, and only forage rainwater from the skies. They only eat from their packs.
But Daddy is still going in the same direction. When Maysilee demands an answer, he replies, "Because it has to end somewhere, right? The arena can't go on forever!"
And indeed, he is right, for they soon reach the edge - a rocky cliff face. Maysilee suggests turning back, but Daddy refuses. Citing only five left and not wanting it to "come down to you and me," Maysilee ends the alliance.
Looking over at Daddy on the couch, I see a pained look in his eyes. Oh no...
Meanwhile, teenage Daddy accidentally discovers a forcefield at the bottom of the arena when he kicks a stray pebble over the cliff... and it bounds back up. Realizing something I don't, he begins to laugh.
That's when we hear Maysilee's scream. To his credit, Daddy runs to where she had been skewered by vicious pink birds and holds her hand until she dies.
Another tribute dies in hand-to-hand combat, and a third gets eaten by carnivorous squirrels, leaving Daddy and a Career girl from District 1 to vie for the crown.
When the final battle comes, it is bloody and awful. Daddy gives as good as he gets.
At least until an axe is sent into his stomach.
Holding his intestines in, Daddy makes a run for his cliff. As he collapses on the edge, the Career throws her axe. He ducks it. The girl just stands there with nothing to fight with, betting she will outlast Daddy. But he knows something she doesn't until too late, when the axe flies back and buries itself into her skull. The cannon sounds and Daddy is declared Victor.
Daddy shuts off the tape, and I sit in stunned silence.
"You weren't supposed to find that forcefield, much less turn it into a weapon," I breath. "That's why the Capitol killed Grandma and Uncle Gregory and your girlfriend! To punish you!"
Daddy nods glumly. "Now you know. Why I drink. Why I will always regret leaving Maysilee. Then again, if we had made it into the Top Two, I don't think I could have killed her; I wouldn't have been able to look your mother in the face. Still wasn't able to, anyhow."
I hug him, and he kisses my temple.
"You're alive, and you have a daughter who loves you. I am so proud to be an Abernathy."